Use of the World Wide Web continues to increase, as does the amount and variety of content that is available to its users. Users of the World Wide Web commonly use browsers (web browsers) implemented on a web-enabled computing device to access content. Such devices include personal computers, laptop computers, netbook computers, smartphones and cell phones, among a number of other possible devices. Such web browsers are configured to read programmatic code and render that code as web pages, which may include rendering both audio and visual content contained in various media files (e.g., image, video and audio files), as well as performing other functions defined in the programmatic code. Web pages are generally implemented using standard programming languages such as HTML, HTML5, CSS and JavaScript, among a number of other available programming languages.
Some browsers allow users to install add-ons (or extensions) to the browser, where such extensions add functionality to the browser and operate as an integrated part of the browser. For instance, an extension may provide a user access to its additional functionality by modifying a user-interface (UI) of the browser. As an example, a weather forecast extension may be added to a browser, where the extension provides easy access to weather information by adding an icon or a button to the UI of the browser. A user may then interact with the extension's button or icon (e.g., by clicking it or hovering over it with a pointing device) to obtain weather information, rather than having to browse to a weather related web page in order to obtain weather information. Computing device users can obtain a wide variety of browser extensions from a number of sources. For instance, computer users may obtain extensions from a web store, the developer's website, or a number of other possible sources.
In some instances, an extension developer may wish to bundle one or more extensions with a web browser application installation program. Currently, such bundling is accomplished by using a custom installer, where the custom installer includes a copy of the browser application and each bundled extension. In such approaches, when the custom installer is executed by a computing system, the custom installer installs the included web browser application and extensions. Such approaches, however, have certain drawbacks. For instance, each time an update to the browser, or to any of the extensions bundled in the custom installer is released, the custom installer must be updated to include the most recent version of the browser and/or extensions. Such an approach may be costly and time-consuming.